Democrats Are Stupid!

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Yesterdays elections ended with overwhelming victories for Conservatism, and to a lesser degree… Republicans. Yet the Democrats want to somehow convince the phantom that the opposite happened, and yesterday was good news for the Democrat party.

For some dumb reason, they have yet to figure out that what happened yesterday has energized Conservatives and Republicans. Or is this exactly what they fear?

WASHINGTON — Blaming election setbacks on a drop in voter enthusiasm, Congressional Democrats said Wednesday that losses in governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey — and a striking House win in New York — should give new urgency to their legislative agenda, including a sweeping health care overhaul.

As they assessed the results, Democratic lawmakers and party strategists said their judgment was that voters remained very uneasy about the economy and did not see Democrats producing on the health, energy and national security changes they promised when voters swept them to power only a year ago.

“Most of us ran on that,” said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia and president of the party’s freshman class. “We must deliver. I need to give Democrats something to be excited about.”

Democrats still face the political dilemma that has dogged their health care efforts this year and will continue to face tough choices as they take up issues like curbing global warming. Should they concentrate on motivating their core supporters, many of whom appeared to stay away from the polls in New Jersey and Virginia, by taking a more liberal approach, for example by embracing a public health insurance option?

Or do they try to write health, energy and fiscal policies that can attract independents, who broke for Republicans in Tuesday’s voting, in order to protect more moderate Democrats in conservative districts where spending and the rising debt are top worries?

“We have to do something, but it has to be right,” said Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a first-term Maryland Democrat who won his seat away from a Republican last year. “My biggest concern is cost. The impact on the deficit is a real problem.”

Republicans portrayed the election outcome as a repudiation of Democratic policies and predicted significant Congressional gains next year despite Tuesday’s embarrassing loss in a longtime House Republican stronghold in upstate New York.

“If we can continue to stand on principle and oppose these liberal policies and show the American people that we have better solutions that are common sense solutions, we are going to do fine,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said. He predicted that the Democratic rank-and-file, fearing for their political futures, would press its leadership to rethink the party’s direction.

Yet several Democratic lawmakers said the election could have the opposite result and spur Democrats on in an effort to recapture the coalition of young, minority, urban and suburban Democrats and independents who were central to the 2008 election victories.

“I think the issues of health care and energy independence are important issues the president has outlined early on, and those are issues we ought to focus on,” said Representative Allen Boyd, a centrist Florida Democrat.

From a purely Congressional perspective, Tuesday was a positive night for Democrats as they retained a California seat in a special election and picked up the seat in upstate New York partly as a result of a Republican Party feud. The winner of that race, Bill Owens, has already assured Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California that he will support the party health care proposal that could reach the floor this weekend, aides said.

Mr. Owens and John Garamendi, a California Democrat who won a House seat in the Bay Area vacated by a Democrat, could be sworn in as early as Thursday, bringing the party breakdown in the House to 258 to 177 in favor of Democrats, a net increase of one.

“This was a victory for health care reform,” Ms. Pelosi said. “From our standpoint, we picked up votes last night.”

While not discounting the Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats said the New York and California House races were the only contests that centered on Congressional issues and Democrats won both despite months of Republican attacks on the legislative priorities of President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

“The governors of Virginia and New Jersey don’t have a vote on the Obama agenda,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Yet there were ominous signs for Congressional Democrats in the results, notably in Virginia, where Democrats picked up three Republican seats last year and acknowledge that they will have difficulty holding on to them. Republicans noted that in two of those freshman districts, the Republican victor for governor, Robert F. McDonnell, won by a more than 20-point margin.

“The election in New York may provide a momentary victory for Democrats, but the results in two gubernatorial contests tell us more about what 2010 holds in store for the party in power,” said Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

In the Senate, some Democrats said the voting on Tuesday was likely to give some lawmakers from more conservative parts of the country further pause in considering how to vote on health care. But Democrats in both chambers said that their views on how to vote on the issue were being shaped by multiple factors and that the election results would play little role.

“My decision is based on the substance of the bill and how it affects my constituents and nothing else,” said Mr. Boyd, the Florida Democrat.

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2 responses

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Eowyn(00:06:18) :

Gio,

This article’s title, “Democrats to Use Election to Push Agenda in Congress,” has got to be the funniest thing I’ve read for some time. What planet do the Dems live on? Certainly not the same one we inhabit!

The title more accurately should be “Despite Election Defeats, Democrats to Push Agenda in Congress”!